"I don't know what they are called, the spaces between seconds– but I think of you always in those intervals."
― Salvador Plascencia
S C O R P I O N
I punched the Falcon jet out of our base of operations at a speed I usually did. I navigated easily through the endless throng of structures and fusion crafts as I usually did. What gave me pause however, was the awe stricken face of the boy that was almost a man beside me.
It struck me that he had never flown in a military-grade craft... even regular fusion crafts very often at all. Every time the engines threw him back into the co-pilot chair a little his eyes ignited and he devoured every detail around him. It hit so squarely in the chest because I remember that feeling of coming from nothing to suddenly everything.
I remember the world Sylus Dartega thrust me into.
So, instead of the direct route to our new arms dealer, I took a rather different approach.
I pulled harshly back on the controls and sent the jet spiralling upwards in what my previous second and I knew as a combat manoeuvre. Lee's eyes bulged out of his head in shock and something closer to excitement. I allowed the corner of my mouth to curl once more.
Then I sent all four fuel cells into our climb and his excitement toed the line between sheer terror and curiosity. It was always a dangerous fascination. I would know.
"That's five G's of force." I noted calmly, pinned against my own chair as we climbed higher out of the city sky line.
"What–does that–mean-Scorpion?" He grit out, through shallow breaths.
I rolled my head towards him, despite the pressure building.
"It means you're doing pretty well for someone who's scarcely left Sector 50–let alone the atmosphere." I deadpanned.
But I wasn't here to make the kid pass out after all. I suddenly levelled our death spiral upwards until we glided calmly level above the cloud line. I remained silent, gazing out at a familiar blanket of silk that was now stained with the sunset of another day. But his reaction was like the price of my own the very first time.
So I kicked my boots onto the dash and crossed my arms to watch him.
His rigid soldier routine was all but forgotten. Now a boy looked at a world he had never seen before and he lived for it. He came alive to it, just as I had. That hunger for life was just as present as he pinned both palms against the pilot glass and gawked.
"This–this was above us–this whole time?" He murmured in disbelief. Then his eyes turned to the peaks of the tallest sky towers breaking right through that silken cloud and catching the best of the sun set that bled golden beams across the sky. "–I can see why they built them up there." He finally snorted.
This made me smirk for an entirely new reason.
Makayla had the same affinity for recreating this scene on a sketchpad. If not a painting. She had seen this sight a thousand times over and still took the time to build it all over again in different ways. While Lee took in the view I plucked the cord around my neck absentmindedly and felt the cool sapphire ring in my fingers. No matter where she was out there I still had this promise around my neck keeping my mind together. The most reassuring part of it all... was that she would do the same.
"I can't have you walking around without my ring. That would just be rude at this point..." I smiled lightly. She had made out with such casual grace, yet her eyes told me a different story. This was her past as much as my ring of gold around her neck was my past. The present was blurred but the future was promised. There's only one future I'd have either way.
A past Scorpion would have chased after the blonde that held my heart so completely. Would have raged and sent everything she had to make her, her own again. But Makayla was her own as much as she was my own. And Despite the cool distance between us, it did not feel cavernous, nor did it feel destructive. It merely felt like the dots between paragraphs. A breath being held until we finally came face to face with each other once more with the words... Finally.
"That's enough sight seeing." I finally said, looking across the white expanse, "–We have work to do." I stated, planting my boots firmly back on the floor and taking control of the Falcon once more. My thoughts went with them.
Lee's moment of wonder and lost gaze evaporated right back into what he needed to be. When his eyes met my own again there was now a firm nod of respect in them. But that something more would stay with him long after he left this craft.
"Thank you." He mumbled, so low I almost missed it to the engines.
I threw him a cool look and returned to guiding the Falcon downward back on path to the arms dealer in the outer Sector.
"Don't get used to it." I stated.
"No, Scorpion." He quickly affirmed with a nod.
I smirked. He kept his eyes ahead. Smart kid.
I hadn't noticed the glow of my wrist hollow until it turned in my direction when I took the Falcon down a tighter series of turns between buildings. As the sky began to darken and our destination grew closer, those simple words on my wrist glowed with a promise I had already known. Yet it warmed my entire body all at once seeing it.
"I miss you."
The auto-pilot corrected our course when I didn't turn the jet and almost sent us on a collision course with another fusion craft. Lee flinched and glanced quickly at me. I slapped him across the head and he quickly focused ahead again.
"Eyes front. You're not in the inner circle just yet." I snapped.
"Scorpion!" Was all he got out quickly, before fixing his eyes on the skies ahead.
But just like that. Just those simple pixels forming on my wrist had my body wide awake. I was submerged without that woman and there was no denial in me. I hadn't heard from her in almost a week. Of course she was unharmed... The doubt was never in my mind. She was trained within an inch of her life. And then some. But gods... it was good to see those three words. I glanced at my wrist again before shaking my head with a smirk.
"Initiating landing sequence." A cheerful robotic tone informed overhead.
Lee flinched into his seat and looked up around him like he was going insane. I was already out of the pilot's chair and making for the descending ramp.
"Keep up! If you're going to look the part, you're going to need to lose those street rags too!" I called over my shoulder, as my crimson cloak blew out behind me. The weapons on my hips spoke just as loudly while my face did the rest. As it stood, Lee looked ready to wash someone's windows not deal in the dance of the Underworld.
It was time to set the right tone with a new arms dealer. One that said it was worth impressing me.
* * * * *
"The lead ends in Sector 5, Scorpion." Mackenzie murmured uneasily into my comm.
I watched the neon lights glint off one my throwing knives as I turned it between my gloved fingers. I glanced at Lee who did his best to look dutifully intimidating at passers on the streets. At least the new plasma rifle slung between his shoulders did more than his glare.
"Get me, Octavius. I seem to remember he had a history dealing in the upper Sectors."
"You don't want more? This contractor you're after–"
"That will be all, Mackenzie." I finished for her, with no room for negotiation. There was nothing she could counter that with.
"I'll send him out, Scorpion." She answered.
I terminated the comm and sheathed my blade before crossing my arms and watching Lee. He kept his hands within reach of his plasma blades strapped to his hips. I'd never had many personnel that favoured using the burning hot weapons... Too much room for mistakes and lost fingers. Yet it seemed he had been drawn to them in his training. Useful to cut through just about anything. Like contractors.
"So, my deceased Second seemed to have tolerated you." I blurted, without sugar coating it.
He didn't flinch. At least he didn't want me to see he did. Then turn his head and met my gaze with a steady nod.
"He didn't get you there with combat serum?" I questioned with more curiosity, taking in the hardened muscle that was never present when I met the wispy boy.
On reflex those arms tightened under his combat skin and I smirked.
"No, Scorpion. I didn't need assistance to focus."
I barked out a laugh in response and he took a breath before a small smile tugged the corner of his mouth.
"I'd have paid to hear you say that to him... A lot." I snorted, scanning the crowds before glancing at my wrist holo. Octavius should be here soon. But to my surprise Lee broke my focus with his own question.
"Did you expect the contractor to betray him?"
The direct nature of the question punched me in the chest. I stared at my holo a moment longer before slowly looking up to meet his questioning gaze. One that held more anger in it than I had first noticed. Revenge was a potent motivator.
"No." I stated, watching his face closely. "We both made the foolish mistake of trusting him."
Lee considered this a moment, his eyebrows knotting into a frown almost making him look like a man that has seen longer than seventeen years of life.
"Will you be the one to kill him?" He asked simply.
This time a genuine laugh left me. It felt like an emotion dragged from the pits of a museum with the dust blown off. It had a rusty edge.
"Who else? Would you like the honours, Lee of Sector 52?" I said, dripping irony.
He shrugged his large shoulders and threw me a sideways look. Me. This kid had balls.
"I mean, I wouldn't mind it."
I watched him fight a smile as he returned his eyes to the streets and just questioned the leader of the Underworld with as much nonchalance as you would a bar tender. I stared at that young amused face for two more breaths because I knew a part of him recognised how dangerous the line he was treading was... yet, he toed it all the same because he found it amusing.
"You really are like him..." I muttered, shaking my head and leaning back against the building we lingered outside of. Another Proximo. Of course he would leave one behind. "–Screw it. When I serve that worthless contractor up on a gleaming plate–you can swing the sword. Or two. I don't particularly care how he dies." I finished, in an emotionless tone.
But Lee's head still snapped up with a victorious grin.
"Your wish, Scorpion."
I glared at him.
"Stop stealing my dead Second's lines and get your own material."
He buried his answering smirk into a hood he dragged over his short cut hair. When I returned my gaze ahead it held a luxury fusion craft dropping from the sky. I rolled my neck at its approach and dropped my hood back.
When the doors opened two sets of boots dropped out.
One was a lethal member of my personal guard with dark skin and a skillset made to get things done. Just as he had in Sector 1 all those months before. His thick arms and sculpted body made a mockery of the months Lee had spent on his own. But Lee still had time, Octavius was simply the finished product.
The next set of boots was entirely uninvited but a sight far sweeter than these streets had a right to see.
Makayla Xavier tossed a plait of blonde hair behind her and set her hands on her hips looking me up and down like I was one of her own personal guard. She could look all she wanted. But I didn't have a ready set of words as usual. It had been too long for me to find my wit...
I opened my mouth, yet nothing followed.
"Lee?!" She demanded, by way of greeting and shot to the young man at my right. "What on–you've grown!" She exclaimed, pressing his shoulders back and taking him in like a proud parent.
I finally breathed and side eyed, Octavius. He threw me a smirk before pressing his forearm to his chest. "Scorpion." He murmured, with that quiet lethality.
"Octavius." I answered, with a forearm out to clasp his own.
"–it's good to see you too, Makayla." He said shyly, with a voice that broke. I pinched the bridge of my nose before shaking my head. She had a way of melting assassins and agents.
"I'm sorry about Dex." She answered, making his head drop.
"I kept my mind on training. If I could become half of what he was–I could do something about it." He answered, removing the emotion from his voice and hardening his face.
Makayla moved a hand from his shoulder up to his neck and nodded once before dropping her hands from him. I watched them both a moment longer before pulling Octavius in and murmuring.
"Set coordinates for Sector 5. Mackenzie has the details."
"Scorpion." He answered, returning inside of the craft.
This made her turn finally to me.
I crossed my arms and leant back against the metal of the building. She crossed her own and levelled me with those cool ice blue eyes.
"Makayla." I said curtly.
"Alex." She sent right back.
We watched each other a beat before Lee raised an eyebrow at me and opened his mouth. I raised a hand before he could speak, already reading his mind.
"Mention that name to anyone and you not only lose your place on the inner circle, you lose your tongue." I stated flatly.
"Scorpion." He answered by quickly. Then awkwardly edged away from us and into the craft out of sight. His plasma rifle clanged against the roof of the fusion craft and I palmed my face.
"You got my message?" She stated clearly.
"I did."
"Don't leave a girl in suspense..."
"Well, you disappeared on me first." I stated, glancing at the new weapons on her hips.
"Who did I learn that from I wonder?"
I fought a smirk with all I had. She kept her face just as neutral. The seconds ticked by as the unsaid words swirled around us. I had no interest in confronting them just yet. Proximo's death was a sword that hung over us both.
"Want a drink?" I finally asked.
"Yes." She answered in the same breath, turning for the fusion craft on her heel. I let the smirk show when her back was to me and two agents sat inside with varying degrees of lethality.
I jumped in behind her and lounged in my seat before nodding to Octavius.
"Get us some tumblers."
He swiped four glasses and filled them halfway with the glowing blue of Junak. But before the glass reached Lee's waiting hand Makayla swiped it off him and kicked the door open. The wind howled and alerted us with a robotic voice to current altitude before Makayla flung the contents out the open door and closed it.
"Well, that was a waste." I quipped, sipping my own.
"Indeed." Replied Octavius, before toasting me with his own.
"Makayla. I'm not a child." Lee protested, slumping in his seat. Like a child.
"Then you'll be fine without it." She dismissed, taking her own and daring him to challenge her.
"Proximo let me..." He grumbled.
"Well, Proximo has a lot to answer for..." Makayla returned smoothly.
I frowned hard at her present tense of words before knocking back the rest of my drink. Dazz's words swirled around my head like the ice in the glass. Insanity.
"–So does that contractor." He finished for her in a low voice.
Makayla looked up at him. Watched his face a moment and the anger in his eyes. Then she sighed and crossed her legs in front of herself like she didn't have the mental energy to diffuse the vengeance simmering in the craft. She had seen it all before, I thought with humour.
"Long week, Xavier?" I asked innocently.
She rolled her head in my direction and glared without answering. I winked before throwing a cube of ice into my mouth and letting it make a satisfying crunch. Makayla watched my lips. Lee rearranged his gloved hands and watched the city fly past outside. Octavius didn't bother to awkwardly avert his attention and simply watched Makayla with a knowing smile.
"Can you stop looking at me like I'm about to pull the pin on a grenade." Makayla sighed, in Octavius' direction.
He shrugged, "Last time I saw you I did hand you a grenade..."
"Excuse me?" I answered for her, turning my own glare on my personal guard.
"I never used it." She drawled.
I filled my tumbler again and took a deep drink.
"You had no training."
"I had some training–" She began.
"You had no training." I repeated, sinking the rest of the drink.
The pair of them started smiling. I side eyed Octavius.
"That kid doesn't get a single piece of explosive munition from you..." I murmured, glancing at Lee who kept his focus on the outside world.
"Of course, Scorpion."
The craft fell blissfully silent for a few moments. Only the sound of ice clinking in glasses and occasionally rifles rattled between our legs.
"Where are we going?" Makayla finally blurted.
"To kill a contractor." I finished.
The craft fell silent once more. No one appeared to have any issue with that.